Republicans attack Obama’s budget

Attacking President Barack Obama’s grand spending plans, a GOP lawmaker who almost joined the Democrat’s Cabinet said Saturday the U.S. must live within its means or risk its tradition of passing a more prosperous country from one generation to the next.

"We believe you create prosperity by having an affordable government that pursues its responsibilities without excessive costs, taxes or debt," Sen. Judd Gregg said in the Republican radio and Internet address.

Gregg, who accepted the job as commerce secretary but then withdrew his nomination because of "irresolvable conflicts" with Obama’s policies, has become one of the toughest critics of Obama’s handling of the economy.

"In the next five years, President Obama’s budget will double the national debt. In the next 10 years, it will triple the national debt," said Gregg, R-N.H.

"His budget assumes the deficit will average $1 trillion every year for the next 10 years and will add well over $9 trillion in new debts to our children’s backs," said Gregg, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee. "He also is proposing the largest tax increase in history, much of it aimed at taxing small business people who have been, over the years, the best job creators in our economy."

Gregg said Obama’s proposals "represent an extraordinary move of our government to the left."

He acknowledged that Obama "is very forthright in stating that he believes that by greatly expanding the spending, the taxing and the borrowing of our government, this will lead us to prosperity."

In seeking to make the GOP case, Gregg said:

_"It is the individual American who creates prosperity and good jobs, not the government."

_"We believe that you create energy independence not by sticking Americans with a brand new national sales tax on everyone’s electric bill, but by expanding the production of American energy … while also conserving more."

_"We also believe you improve everyone’s health care not by nationalizing the health care system and putting the government between you and your doctor, but by assuring that every American has access to quality health insurance and choices in health care."

He said the U.S. "has an exceptional history of one generation passing on to the next generation a more prosperous and stronger country, but that tradition is being put at risk."

And what outcome was that? Are we to make things worse now for the simple reason that we’ve had a change of ministers, but no change in policy?

The same people that complained about Bush’s extravagant spending are now happily signing on to triple it, just because it flies under a new banner.

Isn’t blind party loyalty to blame for this mess, and aren’t we travelling down that same road with Obama? The Democrats offered no resistance to Bush even when they regained control of the Congress in 2006.

There is also the fact that pay-as-you-go expired in 2002, which is what kept Clinton-era spending in check. Pay-as-you-go required new spending to either be financed by raising taxes or cutting spending in other areas or programs.

We couldn’t merely borrow or print the money for new spending. We can now.

You might also remember that most of Obama’s administration championed the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999.

So what do we do? Do we continue to play the partisan blame-game and ignore reality and the facts?

Do we continue to allow party loyalty and propaganda to trump common sense and responsibility?

Do we simply allow Obama to do as he pleases for the simple reason that his last name isn’t Bush?

I’m no supporter of either party. I prefer to examine these things outside the tight confines of party politics and their paid pundits.

I suggest that neither party has the best interests of America on their agenda. It’s about time that we dropped the false doctrine of left vs right and adopt an us vs them mentallity.

From 2000 to 2008, the GOP made their “case” and we have seen what the outcome has been. I really don’t believe that I care to listen to their “case” anymore. I certainly don’t present myself to have a solution to the mess, but I know one thing, the GOP doesn’t either.

_”It is the individual American who creates prosperity and good jobs, not the government. It is the government that steals this prosperity and gives it to someone else incapable or not willing to earn that prosperity via their own devices. Professional politicians are a perfect example of this in action.”

_”We believe that you create energy independence not by sticking Americans with a brand new national sales tax on everyone’s electric bill, but by expanding the production of American energy … while also conserving more. So long as all the expansion is in fossil fuels.”

_”We also believe you improve everyone’s health care not by nationalizing the health care system and putting the government between you and your doctor, but by assuring that every American has access to quality health insurance and choices in health care. And to be sure of that, we’ve paid the insurance companies billions of tax payer dollars for Medicare while they continue to increase rates. Because insurance companies working to make a profit know what is best for your health.”

He said the U.S. “has an exceptional history of one generation passing on to the next generation a more prosperous and stronger country, but that tradition is being put at risk by baby boomers like myself that took drugs in the sixties only to outlaw them in the eighties. We that invented the shadow banking system eating our economy right now. And we baby boomers that moved all our companies to push for profit above all else so we could line our pockets at the expense of our shared future.”